Commas

[Allen165]

From Wikipedia (Financial regulation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia):

"Financial regulations are a form of regulation or supervision, which subjects financial institutions to certain requirements, restrictions and guidelines, aiming to maintain the integrity of the financial system."

I'm pretty sure there should be no comma before "which," but I'm not so sure about the comma before "aiming." Is the punctuation correct?

Thanks.

 

[bertietheblue]

No comma in the first instance, ', with the aim of -ing' in the second (a comma is needed in the second, otherwise the sense is 'guidelines with the aim of'). You could say 'that/which subject ... and aim' if the aim was independent of the 'subject ...' clause, but it isn't here.

 

[kfredson]

From Wikipedia (Financial regulation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia):

"Financial regulations are a form of regulation or supervision, which subjects financial institutions to certain requirements, restrictions and guidelines, aiming to maintain the integrity of the financial system."

I'm pretty sure there should be no comma before "which," but I'm not so sure about the comma before "aiming." Is the punctuation correct?

Thanks.

Yes, all the punctuation is necessary and correct. To make the meaning of the sentence a little clearer I would add "thus" before aiming. But keep the commas.

 

[Allen165]

Yes, all the punctuation is necessary and correct. To make the meaning of the sentence a little clearer I would add "thus" before aiming. But keep the commas.

So you don't think "which subjects ... system." is a restrictive clause?

 

[kfredson]

So you don't think "which subjects ... system." is a restrictive clause?

By Jove, I believe you are correct. The length and complexity of the sentence makes we welcome a comma before "which." However, in point of fact, it does appear to be a restrictive clause and should not, therefore, be preceded by a comma. I stand corrected. If we replace "which" with "that" it becomes still clearer. I do find the sentence to be overly complex, however, and would probably break it into two sentences.

Many thanks for pointing this out!